To the Apostles and their successors did Jesus Christ impart the power
to baptize all nations. By baptism is man purified from original
sin--from his own personal or actual sins, if there be any; there is
infused into him habitual or justifying grace, accompanied by faith,
hope, charity, as well as the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and he is made
the adopted child of God. The efficient cause of such spiritual
regeneration is Jesus Christ; and yet it is by a Minister of
Reconciliation, pouring water and saying the words "I baptize thee in
the name of the Father," etc., etc., that the cleansing is effected.
It is passing strange that those who believe in baptism as the
appointed means, whereby a minister reconciles a soul in original sin
should hesitate to admit the ministerial power of forgiving actual
sin. The principle is the same. Nearly fifteen hundred years ago, St.
Ambrose, writing against the Novatians, said: "If it be not lawful for
sins to be forgiven by man, why do you baptize? For, assuredly, in
baptism there is remission of all sins. What matters it whether
priests claim this right as having been given them by means of baptism
or penitence? One is the mystery in both. But thou sayest: 'It is the
grace of the mysteries that operates in baptism.' And what operates in
penitence! Is it not the name of God? Where you choose, you claim for
yourselves the grace of God: where you choose, you repudiate."[29]

For, in like manner, in the Sacrament of Penance, does the Minister of
Reconciliation say: "I absolve thee from thy sins, in the name of the
Father," etc., etc. Thereupon the words _produce_ what they signify,
if the penitent is genuinely contrite. But the Reconciler is Jesus
Christ, who uses priests as His delegated agents for effecting
forgiveness. On the day of the resurrection, Jesus Christ appeared to
the eleven, whom He had made priests at the Last Supper, and said:
"Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent one, I also send you. When